Our Team

Andy Green – Chair

Andy was appointed Chair of the Digital Catapult in June 2013. He holds a number of Chairman and NED roles, linked by his passion for how technology transforms business and our daily lives. He chairs IG Group plc, a global leader in online trading, is a NED at ARM Holdings plc, the world’s leading microprocessor IP company, and Avanti plc a global broadband satellite operator.

He also chairs DockOn, a San Diego based start-up that licenses wireless IP across the world and is advisory chairman of npGroup, another nano-multinational, offering technical resourcing services in Europe and Asia. He is also President of UK Space, co-chair of the UK Space Leadership Council, is a member of the Digital Economy Council, a CBI Board member, a trustee of ABESU and is a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute.

Andy was CEO and a member of the board of Logica from January 2008 to August 2012. Prior to joining Logica, he was a board member at BT plc. During his 21 years at BT, Andy held several senior positions, including CEO BT Global Services and CEO BT Openworld. He has served on boards in Europe, Asia and the US, including, until July 2008, the board of Navteq Inc. He began his career with Shell and subsequently joined Deloitte Haskins & Sells.

David Docherty

David has been involved as part of the Interim Advisory Group from the earliest concepts behind the catapult. As well as all that experience, David brings insights from both the television world having been at the BBC and Telewest and the literary world as a successful author. His role as Chief Executive of the National Centre for Universities and Business will help the Digital Catapult coordinate its work in the academic sector with other key players.

Professor Dame Wendy Hall

From the University of Southampton, Wendy is a world renowned expert in areas such as advanced web technologies, digital libraries and human computer interaction. She has published over 350 papers and was the first non-American to be elected president of the Association of Computing Machinery. She will bring us great insights into leading edge technology and the latest research thinking.

Laura Shesgreen

Laura was previously Chief Finance Officer of Skype and brings us great experience of working in a series of successful startups. This will be very valuable as the Digital Catapult has all the challenges of being a new organisation, while at the same time having an exciting national role. As well as her technology insights she will bring financial and governance insights to support the executive team.

Ian Baverstock

Ian is an angel investor, founder of Tenshi Ventures and a successful entrepreneur. As well as being a past president of TIGA, he has valuable experience from the Creative Industries Knowledge Transfer Network. He has a passion for promoting UK business and exports. He brings insight into what works in providing support to startups and hands on experience of the challenges of starting new tech and creative companies.

Jill Ridley-Smith

Jill has worked with growth companies for the past 15 years both as a private equity investor at HgCapital and currently as a Non-Executive Director, business mentor and angel investor. Jill’s skill-set is in supporting, advising and backing management teams who have the vision, courage and execution skills to take advantage of new market opportunities in innovative ways. She brings insight from her diverse business and industry experience together with expertise in strategy, finance and investment with a special interest in healthcare and pharma/biotech.

Steve Thomas

Steve is Managing Director of Strategic Development at Experian where he is responsible for Strategy, M&A, Marketing, innovation and proposition development. He joined Experian following 18 years at IBM, where he served on the board for UK, Ireland and South Africa. Prior to that Steve ran a number of IBM technology, software and consulting businesses in the UK & EMEA. Steve has contributed to government’s thinking on how it should open its data to the market for the better of society and the economy through active roles on Data Strategy Board and the Public Sector Transparency Board. He is a member of Matthew Hancock’s National Data Steering Group advising Ministers. Steve also sits on the Advisory Board at Nottingham University’s Business School and is a Non-Executive Director at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH).

Rowena Ironside

Rowena is Founder and Chair of Women on Boards UK, an action-oriented social enterprise supporting women to leverage their professional skills and experience into Non-Executive Director and other board level roles. She is also a trustee (City Fellow) of Hughes Hall, Cambridge. Rowena spent 25 years in the ICT industry, starting her career writing software in Australia; building and selling an IT services business in London and finally running several multi-national professional and managed services businesses in the software and hosting industries. Since completing the Sloan Masters at London Business School in 2002, Rowena has focused on board and advisory roles. Her governance experience includes six years in the not-for-profit sector as NED and Chair and five years as NED of a startup in the services sector. Rowena also brings broad strategic expertise and global operations experience in the digital sector, along with a passion for entrepreneurship and innovation and experience as an angel investor.